[ExI] AI-controlled fighter planes & race cars

[spike at rainier66.com]

-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of
BillK via extropy-chat
Sent: Thursday, 25 April, 2024 5:34 PM
To: Extropy Chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
Cc: BillK <pharos at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [ExI] AI-controlled fighter planes & race cars

On Wed, 24 Apr 2024 at 15:25, <spike at rainier66.com> wrote:
>
> Oh this is soooo cool, thx BillK!
>
> This to me has so many possibilities for new engineering challenges.  The
robot cars can be scaled down in size, enough to make the cars affordable
for private racing teams.  Because of motorcycles and boats, we already have
super high performance light weight compact low cost factory-produced
engines, such as the ones on the Mercury 225 outboard motor and the Hayabusa
1.3 liter bike engine.  We can use those babies to produce racecars with a
mass of perhaps 500 kg with the highest point a meter or perhaps even less,
off the track.  We are freed from having to build around a human occupant
which doesn't scale down.  We can also take bigger risks with the robot
cars.  We could even create a factory which produces standard
Hayabusa-driven racing frames, perhaps mass produce them for 40k or less.
You add your computer and software, and off to the races.  Ordinary
university race teams could enter that, privateers, oh this could be big.
>
> spike
>---------------------------------


>...On 27 April, the live streaming is from 16.00(GST) to 23:00 (GST).
That is Gulf Standard Time in Abu Dhabi.

PDT (Pacific Daylight Time) is 11 hours behind Gulf Standard Time.
So I think that means 05.00 to 12.00 for you.

You might be able to find the schedule for the race times, so you can skip
the boring bits!  :)

BillK

_______________________________________________



Thanks!  I am usually up and about by that time of day, 0500.  If not, it
will be soon after.  For those on the USA east coast, the fun begins at a
leisurely 0800.

BillK, I went down to the first DARPA Challenge, the robot cars thru the
desert in 2004.  That first year was fun for a short while: the race was a
bust.  Nearly all the cars crashed or failed to proceed after a short time.
None of the cars finished and none qualified for the million bucks by
finishing the 150 mile course in five hours.  

At that time, 20 yrs ago, I really got to thinking about all the
possibilities.  Somebody had put together a robotic motorcycle, which makes
a lotta sense for a desert course like the first DARPA Grand Challenge.  I
realized that robot motorcycle racing would bring in a lotta new fans to the
sport, and has some big advantages: racing motorcycles already exist and
have economies of scale, unlike cars.  A car capable of keeping up with the
full-on racers cost a million bucks or more (the Lamborghinis and Maseratis
and such as that) but a racing bike that can be had for less than 25k is
only a second or two per lap slower than the full racing bike.

Furthermore... the robot race bike is interesting visually, and it could
theoretically go faster than a humanned bike, for both the weight advantage
and the reduced drag.

In any case... this Saturday aughta be fun.

spike